Ditas B Lopez Lilian Karunungan Jonathan Burgos
April 27, 2016 — 7:51 AM BDT Updated on April 27, 2016 — 11:36 AM BDT
A controversial city mayor’s tightening grip on the Philippine presidential race has made the nation’s currency Asia’s worst performer this month.
The peso slumped 1.6 percent in April as opinion polls showed Rodrigo Duterte, the crime-busting leader of Davao city -- who made inflammatory comments about rape and extra-judicial killing -- extended his lead before the May 9 vote. He spent 22 years running the city of 1.5 million people and trailed his two closest rivals in a Bloomberg survey of economists on which candidate would best steer economic policy.
Outgoing President Benigno Aquino has won rating upgrades and investor plaudits for transforming an economy once dubbed the “sick man†of Asia, achieving the highest growth since the 1970s. Duterte’s popularity has been boosted by peoples’ anxiety over crime and, like U.S. Presidential candidate Donald Trump, supporters praise him for straight-talking. As the election looms, Philippine bond risk has climbed from near an eight-month low and foreigners have pulled $41 million from local stocks this month.
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